A bunch of colorful characters on today's Birthday Team. I get the feeling Marquard and Pepitone would be fast friends, and that they'd spend much of their time making Charlie Faust miserable.

Also, the front office can probably save money on Downing's conditioning program. Instead of lifting weights, he should be able to just toss Patek up in the air a few hundred times a day.

C: Brian Downing
1B: Joe Pepitone
2B: Brian Roberts
3B: Joe Sewell
SS: Freddie Patek
LF: Mike Hershberger
CF/Manager: Dave Rowe
RF: Jimmy Welsh

SP: Rube Marquard
SP: Mickey Haefner
SP: Bob Moose
SP: Al Maul
SP: Derek Holland
RP: Randy Lerch

Owner: Jerry McMorris
Umpire: Steve Palermo
Mascot: Victory Faust
Generation K Flameout: Bill Pulsipher

The strangest play of that World Series was in game three, when the Giants' Josh Devore caught Hick Cady's line drive in deep right-center field for the game ending out, with the tying and winning runs on base. The problem was that it was nearly dark by the time the game ended, and many of the Fenway fans thought that the ball had gotten by Devore, and that the Red Sox had won the game. In his memoir Baseball As I Have Known It, Fred Lieb wrote that an irate fan in a neighborhood bar wanted to punch him out when he (Lieb) said that the Giants had won, and it wasn't until the arrival of the updated edition of the afternoon paper than the angry fan believed him.

The 1912 World’s Series had a really bizarre format, even apart from the tie game. They played Tuesday in New York, Wednesday and Thursday in Boston, Friday in New York, and Saturday in Boston.

That sort of format was commonplace back then. When a Series came down to a game seven, they'd flip a coin to see where the deciding game was to be played.

Today is also 10 years since a future All-Star was released by his original team. Can you guess who the All-Star is before clicking on the link?

When a Series came down to a game seven, they'd flip a coin to see where the deciding game was to be played

Shhhh! What if Bud hears about this! It would be implemented today, mid series!

When a Series came down to a game seven, they'd flip a coin to see where the deciding game was to be played

To be fair they should stop the game half way through the fifth inning and reconvene in the visiting team's park. Of course if it is tied after the ninth it should be picked up at a neutral site, maybe Caracas.

Per Wiki about the birthday team's Joe Sewell.

According to his obituary published in the New York Times, he {Joe Sewell] played his entire Major League career using only one bat, which he kept in shape by rubbing with a Coke bottle and seasoning with chewing tobacco.

Clearly if Selig made chewing tobacco mandatory we would have fewer broken bats.

Can you guess who the All-Star is before clicking on the link?

I want to say Ortiz but I think the Twins were still playing at this point in 2002.

EDIT: Yup, I'm wrong.

Former Jeopardy! champ Ken Jennings sends out a weekly trivia quiz. Last week, he asked:

In math, a "Ruth-Aaron pair" is a pair of two consecutive integers with equal sums of their prime factors. What two numbers make up the original Ruth-Aaron pair that gave the concept its name?

And this week, the answer:

This math concept got its name from the fact that Hank Aaron's 715th homer beat Babe Ruth's lifetime record: 714. In other words, 714 and 715 are the cancnical Ruth-Aaron pair. Reader Greg McFarlane points out that, unbelievably, Pete Rose breaking Ty Cobb career hits record also represents a Ruth-Aaron pair: 4,191 and 4,192!

That only worked until they took a couple of hits away from Cobb.

Fleshing out the article linked in #3:

Player in question had undergone shoulder surgery during the season and wasn't certain to play in 2003. Under that circumstance, he was released to clear 40-man roster space and declined an offer from the team of a minor-league contract while he rehabbed. He was able to find a team that would pay him major-league money while he sat out what turned out to be the entire 2003 season (so in that sense he was not an immediate success with his new team). As we now know, his new team's investment and patience paid off handsomely.

Coincidentally, another player in a very similar situation -- facing a year off for rehabilitation -- in that same off-season was also able to find a team that would give him a major-league deal while waiting a year for his recovery. That second player was Jon Lieber, and the team was the Yankees.

Fleshing out the article linked in #3:

Is the player Chris Carpenter? I'm pretty sure that the Cardinals signed him when he was hurt and he rehabbed for a season before being able to pitch.

What's this I am hearing about Garcia's shoulder problems? I don't see an article posted, but heard "several players" were upset?

What's this I am hearing about Garcia's shoulder problems? I don't see an article posted, but heard "several players" were upset?

Garcia has MRI on shoulder

Story says some Cardinals were upset that he'd try to pitch a big game knowing his shoulder wasn't right. However, none were upset enough to speak for attribution.

Anyhow, he appears done for the postseason. If they were to advance, I guess Lynn would go back into the rotation, cuz I can't imagine they'd do anything as riverboat-gamblerish as to start Miller.

Thanks esseff, yesterday I thought they were simply gaming the roster.

Garcia out, Shelby Miller added to roster.

Garcia's injury is serious; P-D says torn rotator cuff.

Garcia's injury is serious; P-D says torn rotator cuff.

That would explain why he was getting beat like a rented mule yesterday, and was taken down after two innings.

I thought #3 might be David Eckstein, but upon further review, he may not fulfill any of the qualifications to be the correct answer.

Not Gary Matthews then. Always a good guess for any "this player was released and then ..." question. And I coulda sworn Lieber threw a few innings at the end of 2003 but apparently not ... at least not in the majors he did throw a handful in the minors as part of the rehab.

Mike Tyson's Day of the Champions? Really? Unleash the champion within me? Well I'm certainly gonna be in Sydney on Nov 17th! (You guys aren't getting that ad I'm guessing.)

The Giants and Red Sox ran to a dead heat to-day. The score at the end of the eleventh inning stood New York, 6; Boston, 6

Incidentally, this game grades out pretty spectacularly, depite not actually being completed in a satisfactory manner; the system puts it at #15 among all playoff games. The Sox led 4-2 going into the eighth, but an error, a single, and a force put runners on the corners for the Giants, and a pair of ground-rule doubles combined to score three runs and put New York in the lead. A ground-rule double and an error allowed Boston to tie it in the bottom of the inning.

The Giants loaded the bases with walks in the top of the ninth, but didn't score. Fred Merkle led off the top of the tenth with a triple, and scored three batters later on a sac fly; Tris Speaker also tripled with one out in the bottom of the inning, tried to stretch it, and scored when Art Wilson, who had just entered the game behind the plate, missed the throw home. Duffy Lewis then doubled, but was stranded. The Giants apparently saw the tie coming, because they drew two walks in the top of the eleventh, and immediately had each player try (and fail) to steal second; the Sox went in order, and the game was called.

Now, consider the fact that this tie resulted in the shenanigans of Game 8.